A Blessed day without the rain

     We have had so much rain lately that the fact that we had a day without rain was a real blessing.

     Fishers of Men, Alabama South held their fifth and final team tournament of 2017 on June 10, 2017 on Demopolis Lake in Demopolis, Alabama.  We rented the Pavilion out at Demopolis city landing for the Friday night meeting.  The Lord blessed us with an evening that was not as warm as it could have been and as the sun was going down, the temperatures actually went down and it was nice to be outside.  We ordered pizza from Little Caesars and had salad to go along with it, tea to drink and brownies for desert.  I asked Dr. Meadows our division chaplain to bring the message Friday night.  He talked with us about several things as he read numerous verses from the bible.  Without Holiness you cannot see God.  You also must be reborn again as Jesus said.  Not of the womb, but from the water.  The rebirth and following Jesus is the only way you can be saved.  You have to believe he is the one and only that the bible is the one and only true word of God.  Putting our faith in his as our Lord and Savior is the only way we can make it into heaven and hear the Lord say “Welcome my good and faithful servant.”  The last thing we want to hear is “Depart from me you worker of evil.”  Thank you Dr. Meadows for reminding us again that there is one and only one way we can be saved and one and only one way we can get to heaven.  We had no decisions Friday night, but had one rededication.

     We had a guest Friday night visiting us from the national office.  Bob Eads the national Vice President came down to be with us on Friday night as well as to let us know that we could announce the upcoming new Alabama South Director for Fishers of Men.  Two weeks earlier the Alabama South Team had announced that we were stepping down and asked everyone to be in fervent prayer that the Lord would put a burden on the heart of the person he had to be the next Alabama South Director for Fishers of Men.  The Lord put a burden on the heart of Kevin Diamond apparently not long after we made the announcement and he called me on Sunday and I put him in touch with Al Odom, National President and Founder of Fishers of Men National Tournament trail.  The ball had moved fast and it was pretty much a done process by the time we held the Friday night meeting at Demopolis.  We will be right there to help them get their feet wet in the process of changing over and showing them how we do things so that they can start to learn how they would prefer to do things their way.  We are not going anywhere, just stepping down from the leadership of Alabama South and maybe moving into a new direction.

     God has blessed us in so many ways over the past 13 years of tournaments and the year it took to get the division started.  We have made so many friendships over the years and hope to keep those friendships growing.

     Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful day to be outdoors as the Lord quite often does.  We got the 14 boats blasted off to fish and see who would come in to take the Points Champions place at the end of the day for 2017.

     Congratulations to the team of Wayne and Lisa Cox.  They brought in 5 fish that weighed in at 13.18 lbs. and had the big fish of the day that weighed in at 5.53 Lbs. to take first place.  On one hand Wayne and Lisa did not have a very good year.  They had several trials through the year with breakdowns.  However, they did have a good year from the standpoint that they won the first tournament of the year as well as the last.  They caught their fish on black and blue jigs in grass, tree tops and in shallow water 3 to 6 feet deep.  They ran about 40 minutes.

     Congratulations to the team of Joe Turner and John Odom.  They weighed in 5 fish that weighed in at 12.82 to take second place and to tie with the team of Brian and Kim Moye for Points Champions.  They caught their fish on War Eagle spinner baits in shallow water.  They ran around a good bit, but not very far.  The tie breaker for the Points Championship was total weight for the year and the team of Turner and Odom edged out the team of Moye and Moye to take the Points Champions pot and earn a place to go to lake Guntersville in April 2018 to fish the Fishers of Men National Championship.

     Since we only had 14 boats we only paid 2 places, but the team of Lou Cobb and Jim Bell took third place bonus bucks.

     For the day there were 51 fish brought in that weighed in at a total of 102.34 lbs.

     We announced the top 10 and legacy winner to move on to the FOM State of Alabama Championship tournament in September that is being hosted by Alabama South this year.

     When we start to make the transition over to the new Director I will be giving him all of the contact information I have for all of the people that have either fished with Alabama south or expressed an interest in being a part of the division.

     If you are looking for a different kind of Bass tournament trail come and check us out.  You will be glad you did.

     If you are not on our mailing list contact me so we can add you and you will get updated information as we release it.

If you would like to know more about Fishers of Men, Alabama South you can contact me, Allen Couch at acouch14@bellsouth.net. Or you can call me at work, at 251-867-7706, Home, 251-867-9852 or Cell, 251-363-0547.

Fishers of Men would like to thank all of the fine Sponsors:  BassCat Boats, Mercury Outboards, Berkley, Abu Garcia, Strike King Lure Company, Kings Homes, Power-Pole, Raymarine, Duckett Fishing, ORCA Coolers, Buckeye Lures, T & H Marine, Gator Guards, Solar Bat, Kistler Rods, Hydro Wave, Enigma, KidCasters, Fishouflage, Costa, Jacobs Glass, Rayjus Sportswear, Rod ArmorZ, and Rejuvenade.

Alabama South would like to thank their sponsors:  First Progressive Bank, First Baptist Church of East Brewton, AL, The Escambia Baptist Association, Naltys Seasonings, and JJ’s Magic made by Fish Chemicals Inc, Premier League Lures, Agressor Custom baits, Gulf Winds Federal Credit Union and Escambia Lawn Equipment Center, Inc.  When you do business with any of these sponsors tell them Thank You for being a sponsor of Fishers of Men, Alabama South.  Without all of these fine sponsors Alabama South could not do all that we do.  Alabama South would also like to thank all of the churches that host us each year.  We are so blessed by the churches that host us each year.

Place	Team	Members	# Fish	Big Fish	Gross	Penalty	Net Wt	Points
1	3799	Lisa Cox	5	5.53	13.18	0	13.18	200
2	21103	John Odom Joe Turner	5	3.41	12.82	0	12.82	199
3	21095	E L Cobb Jim Bell	5	0	11.7	0	11.7	198
4	21115	Roger Caldwell Matt Caldwell	5	4.45	11.5	0	11.5	197
5	21094		5	0	10.04	0	10.04	196
6	10395	Brian Moye Kimberly Moye	5	0	9.87	0	9.87	195
7	17176	Curtis White Zachery White	5	0	8.97	0	8.97	194
8	18730	Kevin Diamond Josh Diamond	5	1.82	7.42	0.25	7.17	193
9	14609	Michael Stewart Thomas Pugh	3	0	5.11	0.25	4.86	192
10	3339		3	0	4.19	0	4.19	191
11	14501	Steve Pierce	2	0	2.68	0	2.68	140
12	21117		1	2.07	2.07	0	2.07	189
13	21444	Eric Snodgrass James McCoy	1	1.79	1.79	0	1.79	188
14	21116	Marty Long	1	1.5	1.5	0	1.5	137